■■11 


ffir&ihrzr 


ON    BEING    HUMAN 


Books  by 
WOODROW   WILSON 

THE  TRIUMPH  OF  IDEALS 

INTERNATIONAL  IDEALS 

GUARANTEES   OF  PEACE 

IN   OUR  FIRST    YEAR   OF   WAR 

WHY    WE    ARE    AT    WAR 

A  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

WHEN  A  MAN  COMES  TO  HIMSELF 

ON  BEING  HUMAN 

THE  PRESIDENT  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES 


HARPER  &   BROTHERS.   NEW  YORK 
[Established  1817] 


ON 
BEING    HUMAN 

WOODROW    WILSON 

Ph.D.,  Litt.D.,  LL.D. 
PRESIDENT  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES 


HARPER  &  BROTHERS 

NEW     YORK     AND     LONDON 


From  the  Atlantic  Monthly 
Copyright,  1897,  by  Houghton  Mifflin  St  Co. 


Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America 


ON    BEING    HUMAN 


SRLF 
YHL 


6C/L\ 

ON    BEING    HUMAN 


THE  rarest  sort  of  a  book,"  says 
Mr.  Bagehot,  slyly,  is  "a  book 
to  read";  and  "the  knack  in  style  is 
to  write  like  a  human  being."  It  is 
painfully  evident,  upon  experiment, 
that  not  many  of  the  books  which 
come  teeming  from  our  presses  every 
year  are  meant  to  be  read.  They  are 
meant,  it  may  be,  to  be  pondered ;  it  is 
hoped,  no  doubt,  they  may  instruct, 
or  inform,  or  startle,  or  arouse,  or  re- 
form, or  provoke,  or  amuse  us;  but 
we  read,  if  we  have  the  true  reader's 
[i] 


ON   BEING  HUMAN 

zest  and  palate,  not  to  grow  more 
knowing,  but  to  be  less  pent  up  and 
bound  within  a  little  circle, — as  those 
who  take  their  pleasure,  and  not  as 
those  who  laboriously  seek  instruc- 
tion,— as  a  means  of  seeing  and 
enjoying  the  world  of  men  and  af- 
fairs. We  wish  companionship  and 
renewal  of  spirit,  enrichment  of 
thought  and  the  full  adventure  of 
the  mind;  and  we  desire  fair  com- 
pany, and  a  large  world  in  which  to 
find  them. 

No  one  who  loves  the  masters 
who  may  be  communed  with  and 
read  but  must  see,  therefore,  and 
resent  the  error  of  making  the  text 
of  any  one  of  them  a  source  to  draw 
grammar  from,  forcing  the  parts  of 
speech  to  stand  out  stark  and  cold 
from  the  warm  text;    or  a  store  of 

[21 


ON  BEING  HUMAN 

samples  whence  to  draw  rhetorical 
instances,  setting  up  figures  of  speech 
singly  and  without  support  of  any 
neighbor  phrase,  to  be  stared  at 
curiously  and  with  intent  to  copy 
or  dissect!  Here  is  grammar  done 
without  deliberation:  the  phrases 
carry  their  meaning  simply  and  by  a 
sort  of  limpid  reflection ;  the  thought 
is  a  living  thing,  not  an  image  in- 
geniously contrived  and  wrought. 
Pray  leave  the  text  whole:  it  has  no 
meaning  piecemeal;  at  any  rate,  not 
that  best,  wholesome  meaning,  as  of 
a  frank  and  genial  friend  who  talks, 
not  for  himself  or  for  his  phrase, 
but  for  you.  It  is  questionable 
morals  to  dismember  a  living  frame 
to  seek  for  its  obscure  fountains  of 
life! 

When  you  say  that  a  book  was 

[3] 


ON  BEING  HUMAN 

meant  to  be  read,  you  mean,  for  one 
thing,  of  course,  that  it  was  not 
meant  to  be  studied.  You  do  not 
study  a  good  story,  or  a  haunting 
poem,  or  a  battle  song,  or  a  love 
ballad,  or  any  moving  narrative, 
whether  it  be  out  of  history  or  out 
of  fiction — nor  any  argument,  even, 
that  moves  vital  in  the  field  of  ac- 
tion. You  do  not  have  to  study 
these  things;  they  reveal  them- 
selves, you  do  not  stay  to  see  how. 
They  remain  with  you,  and  will  not 
be  forgotten  or  laid  by.  They  cling 
like  a  personal  experience,  and  be- 
come the  mind's  intimates.  You 
devour  a  book  meant  to  be  read,  not 
because  you  would  fill  yourself  or 
have  an  anxious  care  to  be  nourished, 
but  because  it  contains  such  stuff  as 
it  makes  the  mind  hungry  to  look 

[4] 


ON  BEING   HUMAN 

upon.  Neither  do  you  read  it  to  kill 
time,  but  to  lengthen  time,  rather, 
adding  to  it  its  natural  usury  by 
living  the  more  abundantly  while 
it  lasts,  joining  another's  life  and 
thought  to  your  own. 

There  are  a  few  children  in  every 
generation,  as  Mr.  Bagehot  reminds 
us,  who  think  the  natural  thing  to 
do  with  any  book  is  to  read  it. 
"There  is  an  argument  from  design 
in  the  subject,"  as  he  says;  "if  the 
book  was  not  meant  for  that  pur- 
pose, for  what  purpose  was  it 
meant?"  These  are  the  young  eyes 
to  which  books  yield  up  a  great 
treasure,  almost  in  spite  of  them- 
selves, as  if  they  had  been  pene- 
trated by  some  swift,  enlarging  pow- 
er of  vision  which  only  the  young 
know.     It    is    these    youngsters    to 

[5] 


ON  BEING  HUMAN 

whom  books  give  up  the  long  ages  of 
history,  "the  wonderful  series  going 
back  to  the  times  of  old  patriarchs 
with  their  flocks  and  herds" — I  am 
quoting  Mr.  Bagehot  again — "the 
keen -eyed  Greek,  the  stately  Roman, 
the  watching  Jew,  the  uncouth  Goth, 
the  horrid  Hun,  the  settled  picture 
of  the  unchanging  East,  the  restless 
shifting  of  the  rapid  West,  the  rise 
of  the  cold  and  classical  civilization, 
its  fall,  the  rough  impetuous  Middle 
Ages,  the  vague  warm  picture  of  our- 
selves and  home.  When  did  we 
learn  these?  Not  yesterday  nor  to- 
day, but  long  ago,  in  the  first  dawn 
of  reason,  in  the  original  flow  of 
fancy."  Books  will  not  yield  to  us 
so  richly  when  we  are  older.  The 
argument  from  design  fails.  We  re- 
turn to  the  staid  authors  we  read 

[6] 


ON  BEING  HUMAN 

long  ago,  and  do  not  find  in  them  the 
vital,  speaking  images  that  used  to 
lie  there  upon  the  page.  Our  own 
fancy  is  gone,  and  the  author  never 
had  any.  We  are  driven  in  upon 
the  books  meant  to  be  read. 

These  are  books  written  by  human 
beings,  indeed,  but  with  no  general 
quality  belonging  to  the  kind — with 
a  special  tone  and  temper,  rather,  a 
spirit  out  of  the  common,  touched 
with  a  light  that  shines  clear  out  of 
some  great  source  of  light  which 
not  every  man  can  uncover.  We  call 
this  spirit  human  because  it  moves 
us,  quickens  a  like  life  in  ourselves, 
makes  us  glow  with  a  sort  of  ardor  of 
self -discovery.  It  touches  the  springs 
of  fancy  or  of  action  within  us,  and 
makes  our  own  life  seem  more  quick 
and  vital.    We  do  not  call  every  book 

[7] 


ON  BEING  HUMAN 

that  moves  us  human.  Some  seem 
written  with  knowledge  of  the  black 
art,  set  our  base  passions  aflame,  dis- 
close motives  at  which  we  shudder — 
the  more  because  we  feel  their  reality 
and  power;  and  we  know  that  this 
is  of  the  devil,  and  not  the  fruitage 
of  any  quality  that  distinguishes  us 
as  men.  We  are  distinguished  as 
men  by  the  qualities  that  mark  us 
different  from  the  beasts.  When  we 
call  a  thing  human  we  have  a  spirit- 
ual ideal  in  mind.  It  may  not  be  an 
ideal  of  that  which  is  perfect,  but  it 
moves  at  least  upon  an  upland  level 
where  the  air  is  sweet;  it  holds  an 
image  of  man  erect  and  constant, 
going  abroad  with  undaunted  steps, 
looking  with  frank  and  open  gaze 
upon  all  the  fortunes  of  his  day,  feel- 
ing ever  and  again — 

[8] 


ON  BEING  HUMAN 

"the  joy 
Of  elevated  thoughts;   a  sense  sublime 
Of  something  far  more  deeply  interfused, 
Whose  dwelling  is  the  light  of  setting  suns, 
And  the  round  ocean  and  the  living  air, 
And  the  blue  sky,  and  in  the  mind  of  man: 
A  motion  and  a  spirit,  that  impels 
All  thinking  things." 

Say  what  we  may  of  the  errors  and 
the  degrading  sins  of  our  kind,  we  do 
not  willingly  make  what  is  worst  in 
us  the  distinguishing  trait  of  what  is 
human.  When  we  declare,  with 
Bagehot,  that  the  author  whom  we 
love  writes  like  a  human  being,  we 
are  not  sneering  at  him;  we  do  not 
say  it  with  a  leer.  It  is  in  token  of 
admiration,  rather.  He  makes  us 
like  our  humankind.  There  is  a  noble 
passion  in  what  he  says,  a  wholesome 
humor  that  echoes  genial  comrade- 


ON  BEING  HUMAN 

ships;  a  certain  reasonableness  and 
moderation  in  what  is  thought  and 
said;  an  air  of  the  open  day,  in  which 
things  are  seen  whole  and  in  their 
right  colors,  rather  than  of  the  close 
study  or  the  academic  class-room. 
We  do  not  want  our  poetry  from 
grammarians,  nor  our  tales  from  phi- 
lologists, nor  our  history  from  theo- 
rists. Their  human  nature  is  subtly 
transmuted  into  something  less  broad 
and  catholic  and  of  the  general  world. 
Neither  do  we  want  our  political 
economy  from  tradesmen  nor  our 
statesmanship  from  mere  politicians, 
but  from  those  who  see  more  and 
care  for  more  than  these  men  see  or 
care  for. 


n 

ONCE — it  is  a  thought  which 
troubles  us — once  it  was  a 
simple  enough  matter  to  be  a  human 
being,  but  now  it  is  deeply  difficult; 
because  life  was  once  simple,  but  is 
now  complex,  confused,  multifarious. 
Haste,  anxiety,  preoccupation,  the 
need  to  specialize  and  make  machines 
of  ourselves,  have  transformed  the 
once  simple  world,  and  we  are  ap- 
prised that  it  will  not  be  without  ef- 
fort that  we  shall  keep  the  broad 
human  traits  which  have  so  far  made 
the  earth  habitable.  We  have  seen 
our  modern  life  accumulate,  hot  and 

2  [11] 


ON  BEING  HUMAN 

restless,  in  great  cities — and  we  can- 
not say  that  the  change  is  not  nat- 
ural: we  see  in  it,  on  the  contrary, 
the  fulfilment  of  an  inevitable  law 
of  change,  which  is  no  doubt  a  law 
of  growth,  and  not  of  decay.  And 
yet  we  look  upon  the  portentous 
thing  with  a  great  distaste,  and  doubt 
with  what  altered  passions  we  shall 
come  out  of  it.  The  huge,  rushing, 
aggregate  life  of  a  great  city — the 
crushing  crowds  in  the  streets,  where 
friends  seldom  meet  and  there  are 
few  greetings;  the  thunderous  noise 
of  trade  and  industry  that  speaks  of 
nothing  but  gain  and  competition, 
and  a  consuming  fever  that  checks 
the  natural  courses  of  the  kindly 
blood;  no  leisure  anywhere,  no  quiet, 
no  restful  ease,  no  wise  repose — all 
this  shocks  us.     It  is  inhumane.     It 

[121 


ON  BEING  HUMAN 

does  not  seem  human.  How  much 
more  likely  does  it  appear  that  we 
shall  find  men  sane  and  human  about 
a  country  fireside,  upon  the  streets 
of  quiet  villages,  where  all  are  neigh- 
bors, where  groups  of  friends  gather 
easily,  and  a  constant  sympathy 
makes  the  very  air  seem  native! 
Why  should  not  the  city  seem  infi- 
nitely more  human  than  the  hamlet  ? 
Why  should  not  human  traits  the 
more  abound  where  human  beings 
teem  millions  strong? 

Because  the  city  curtails  man  of 
his  wholeness,  specializes  him,  quick- 
ens some  powers,  stunts  others,  gives 
him  a  sharp  edge,  and  a  temper  like 
that  of  steel,  makes  him  unfit  for 
nothing  so  much  as  to  sit  still.  Men 
have  indeed  written  like  human  be- 
ings in  the  midst  of  great  cities,  but 

[13] 


ON  BEING  HUMAN 

not  often  when  they  have  shared  the 
city's  characteristic  life,  its  struggle 
for  place  and  for  gain.  There  are  not 
many  places  that  belong  to  a  city's 
life  to  which  you  can  "invite  your 
soul."  Its  haste,  its  preoccupations, 
its  anxieties,  its  rushing  noise  as  of 
men  driven,  its  ringing  cries,  distract 
you.  It  offers  no  quiet  for  reflection; 
it  permits  no  retirement  to  any  who 
share  its  life.  It  is  a  place  of  little 
tasks,  of  narrowed  functions,  of  ag- 
gregate and  not  of  individual 
strength.  The  great  machine  dom- 
inates its  little  parts,  and  its  Soci- 
ety is  as  much  of  a  machine  as  its 
business. 

"This  tract  which  the  river  of  Time 
Now  flows  through  with  us,  is  the  plain. 
Gone  is  the  calm  of  its  earlier  shore. 
Border 'd  by  cities,  and  hoarse 
[14] 


ON  BEING  HUMAN 

With  a  thousand  cries  is  its  stream. 

And  we  on  its  breasts,  our  minds 

Are  confused  as  the  cries  which  we  hear, 

Changing  and  shot  as  the  sights  which  we  see. 

"And  we  say  that  repose  has  fled 
Forever  the  course  of  the  river  of  Time, 
That  cities  will  crowd  to  its  edge 
In  a  blacker,  incessanter  line; 
That  the  din  will  be  more  on  its  banks, 
Denser  the  trade  on  its  stream, 
Flatter  the  plain  where  it  flows, 
Fiercer  the  sun  overhead, 
That  never  will  those  on  its  breast 
See  an  ennobling  sight, 
Drink  of  the  feeling  of  quiet  again. 

"But  what  was  before  us  we  know  not, 
And  we  know  not  what  shall  succeed. 

"Haply,  the  river  of  Time — 
As  it  grows,  as  the  towns  on  its  marge 
Fling  their  wavering  lights 
On  a  wider,  statelier  stream — 
[15] 


ON  BEING  HUMAN 

May  acquire,  if  not  the  calm 
Of  its  early  mountainous  shore, 
Yet  a  solemn  peace  of  its  own. 

"And  the  width  of  the  waters,  the  hush 
Of  the  gray  expanse  where  he  floats, 
Freshening  its  current  and  spotted  with  foam 
As  it  draws  to  the  Ocean,  may  strike 
Peace  to  the  soul  of  the  man  on  its  breast — 
As  the  pale  waste  widens  around  him, 
As  the  banks  fade  dimmer  away, 
As  the  stars  come  out,  and  the  night-wind 
Brings  up  the  stream 
Murmurs  and  scents  of  the  infinite  sea." 

We  cannot  easily  see  the  large 
measure  and  abiding  purpose  of  the 
novel  age  in  which  we  stand  young 
and  confused.  The  view  that  shall 
clear  our  minds  and  quicken  us  to 
act  as  those  who  know  their  task  and 
its  distant  consummation  will  come 
with  better  knowledge  and  completer 

[16] 


ON  BEING  HUMAN 

self-possession.  It  shall  not  be  a 
night-wind,  but  an  air  that  shall 
blow  out  of  the  widening  east  and 
with  the  coming  of  the  light,  that 
shall  bring  us,  with  the  morning, 
"murmurs  and  scents  of  the  infinite 
sea."  Who  can  doubt  that  man  has 
grown  more  and  more  human  with 
each  step  of  that  slow  process  which 
has  brought  him  knowledge,  self- 
restraint,  the  arts  of  intercourse,  and 
the  revelations  of  real  joy?  Man 
has  more  and  more  lived  with  his 
fellow -men,  and  it  is  society  that  has 
humanized  him — the  development  of 
society  into  an  infinitely  various 
school  of  discipline  and  ordered  skill. 
He  has  been  made  more  human  by 
schooling,  by  growing  more  self- 
possessed — less  violent,  less  tumul- 
tuous; holding  himself  in  hand,  and 

[17] 


ON  BEING  HUMAN 

moving  always  with  a  certain  poise 
of  spirit;  not  forever  clapping  his 
hand  to  the  hilt  of  his  sword,  but 
preferring,  rather,  to  play  with  a 
subtler  skill  upon  the  springs  of 
action.  This  is  our  conception  of 
the  truly  human  man:  a  man  in 
whom  there  is  a  just  balance  of 
faculties,  a  catholic  sympathy — no 
brawler,  no  fanatic,  no  pharisee;  not 
too  credulous  in  hope,  not  too  des- 
perate in  purpose;  warm,  but  not 
hasty;  ardent,  and  full  of  definite 
power,  but  not  running  about  to  be 
pleased  and  deceived  by  every  new 
thing. 

It  is  a  genial  image,  of  men  we 
love — an  image  of  men  warm  and 
true  of  heart,  direct  and  unhesitat- 
ing in  courage,  generous,  magnani- 
mous, faithful,  steadfast,  capable  of 

[18] 


ON  BEING   HUMAN 

a  deep  devotion  and  self-forgetful- 
ness.  But  the  age  changes,  and  with 
it  must  change  our  ideals  of  human 
quality.  Not  that  we  would  give  up 
what  we  have  loved:  we  would  add 
what  a  new  life  demands.  In  a  new 
age  men  must  acquire  a  new  capacity, 
must  be  men  upon  a  new  scale,  and 
with  added  qualities.  We  shall  need 
a  new  Renaissance,  ushered  in  by  a 
new  "humanistic"  movement,  in 
which  we  shall  add  to  our  present 
minute,  introspective  study  of  our- 
selves, our  jails,  our  slums,  our  nerve- 
centers,  our  shifts  to  live,  almost  as 
morbid  as  mediaeval  religion,  a  re- 
discovery of  the  round  world,  and  of 
man's  place  in  it,  now  that  its  face 
has  changed.  We  study  the  world, 
but  not  yet  with  intent  to  school  our 
hearts  and  tastes,  broaden  our  na- 

[19] 


ON  BEING  HUMAN 

tures,  and  know  our  fellow-men  as 
comrades  rather  than  as  phenomena; 
with  purpose,  rather,  to  build  up 
bodies  of  critical  doctrine  and  pro- 
vide ourselves  with  theses.  That, 
surely,  is  not  the  truly  humanizing 
way  in  which  to  take  the  air  of  the 
world.  Man  is  much  more  than  a 
"rational  being,"  and  lives  more  by 
sympathies  and  impressions  than  by 
conclusions.  It  darkens  his  eyes  and 
dries  up  the  wells  of  his  humanity  to 
be  forever  in  search  of  doctrine.  We 
need  wholesome,  experiencing  na- 
tures, I  dare  affirm,  much  more  than 
we  need  sound  reasoning. 


Ill 

TAKE  life  in  the  large  view,  and 
we  are  most  reasonable  when 
we  seek  that  which  is  most  whole- 
some and  tonic  for  our  natures  as  a 
whole;  and  we  know,  when  we  put 
aside  pedantry,  that  the  great  middle 
object  in  life — the  object  that  lies 
between  religion  on  the  one  hand, 
and  food  and  clothing  on  the  other, 
establishing  our  average  levels  of 
achievement — the  excellent  golden 
mean,  is,  not  to  be  learned,  but  to 
be  human  beings  in  all  the  wide  and 
genial  meaning  of  the  term.  Does 
the  age  hinder?    Do  its  mazy  inter- 

[21] 


ON  BEING  HUMAN 

ests  distract  us  when  we  would  plan 
our  discipline,  determine  our  duty, 
clarify  our  ideals?  It  is  the  more 
necessary  that  we  should  ask  our- 
selves what  it  is  that  is  demanded  of 
us,  if  we  would  fit  our  qualities  to 
meet  the  new  tests.  Let  us  remind 
ourselves  that  to  be  human  is,  for 
one  thing,  to  speak  and  act  with  a 
certain  note  of  genuineness,  a  qual- 
ity mixed  of  spontaneity  and  intel- 
ligence. This  is  necessary  for  whole- 
some life  in  any  age,  but  particularly 
amidst  confused  affairs  and  shifting 
standards.  Genuineness  is  not  mere 
simplicity,  for  that  may  lack  vitality, 
and  genuineness  does  not.  We  ex- 
pect what  we  call  genuine  to  have 
pith  and  strength  of  fiber.  Gen- 
uineness is  a  quality  which  we  some- 
times mean  to  include  when  we  speak 

[22] 


ON  BEING  HUMAN 

of  individuality.  Individuality  is 
lost  the  moment  you  submit  to  pass- 
ing modes  or  fashions,  the  creations 
of  an  artificial  society;  and  so  is 
genuineness.  No  man  is  genuine 
who  is  forever  trying  to  pattern  his 
life  after  the  lives  of  other  people — 
unless,  indeed,  he  be  a  genuine  dolt. 
But  individuality  is  by  no  means  the 
same  as  genuineness;  for  individ- 
uality may  be  associated  with  the 
most  extreme  and  even  ridiculous 
eccentricity,  while  genuineness  we 
conceive  to  be  always  wholesome, 
balanced,  and  touched  with  dignity. 
It  is  a  quality  that  goes  with  good 
sense  and  self-respect.  It  is  a  sort 
of  robust  moral  sanity,  mixed  of  el- 
ements both  moral  and  intellectual. 
It  is  found  in  natures  too  strong  to 
be  mere  trimmers  and  conformers, 

[281 


ON  BEING  HUMAN 

too  well  poised  and  thoughtful  to 
fling  off  into  intemperate  protest  and 
revolt.  Laughter  is  genuine  which 
has  in  it  neither  the  shrill,  hysterical 
note  of  mere  excitement  nor  the  hard, 
metallic  twang  of  the  cynic's  sneer — 
which  rings  in  the  honest  voice  of 
gracious  good  humor,  which  is  inno- 
cent and  unsatirical.  Speech  is  gen- 
uine which  is  without  silliness,  affec- 
tation, or  pretense.  That  character 
is  genuine  which  seems  built  by  na- 
ture rather  than  by  convention, 
which  is  stuff  of  independence  and 
of  good  courage.  Nothing  spurious, 
bastard,  begotten  out  of  true  wed- 
lock of  the  mind;  nothing  adulter- 
ated and  seeming  to  be  what  it  is 
not;  nothing  unreal,  can  ever  get 
place  among  the  nobility  of  things 
genuine,  natural,  of  pure  stock  and 

[24] 


ON  BEING  HUMAN 

unmistakable  lineage.  It  is  a  pre- 
rogative of  every  truly  human  being 
to  come  out  from  the  low  estate  of 
those  who  are  merely  gregarious  and 
of  the  herd,  and  show  his  innate 
powers  cultivated  and  yet  unspoiled 
— sound,  unmixed,  free  from  imita- 
tion; showing  that  individualization 
without  extravagance  which  is  genu- 
ineness. 

But  how?  By  what  means  is  this 
self-liberation  to  be  effected — this 
emancipation  from  affectation  and 
the  bondage  of  being  like  other  peo- 
ple? Is  it  open  to  us  to  choose  to  be 
genuine?  I  see  nothing  insuperable 
in  the  way,  except  for  those  who  are 
hopelessly  lacking  in  a  sense  of  hu- 
mor. It  depends  upon  the  range 
and  scale  of  your  observation  wheth- 
er  you   can   strike  the   balance    of 

[25] 


ON  BEING  HUMAN 

genuineness  or  not.  If  you  live  in  a 
small  and  petty  world,  you  will  be 
subject  to  its  standards;  but  if  you 
live  in  a  large  world,  you  will  see 
that  standards  are  innumerable — 
some  old,  some  new,  some  made  by 
the  noble-minded  and  made  to  last, 
some  made  by  the  weak-minded  and 
destined  to  perish,  some  lasting  from 
age  to  age,  some  only  from  day  to 
day — and  that  a  choice  must  be 
made  among  them.  It  is  then  that 
your  sense  of  humor  will  assist  you. 
You  are,  you  will  perceive,  upon  a 
long  journey,  and  it  will  seem  to  you 
ridiculous  to  change  your  life  and 
discipline  your  instincts  to  conform 
to  the  usages  of  a  single  inn  by  the 
way.  You  will  distinguish  the  essen- 
tials from  the  accidents,  and  deem 
the  accidents  something  meant  for 

[26] 


ON  BEING  HUMAN 

your  amusement.  The  strongest  na- 
tures do  not  need  to  wait  for  these 
slow  lessons  of  observation,  to  be 
got  by  conning  life:  their  sheer  vigor 
makes  it  impossible  for  them  to  con- 
form to  fashion  or  care  for  times  and 
seasons.  But  the  rest  of  us  must 
cultivate  knowledge  of  the  world  in 
the  large,  get  our  offing,  reach  a 
comparative  point  of  view,  before  we 
can  become  with  steady  confidence 
our  own  masters  and  pilots.  The 
art  of  being  human  begins  with  the 
practice  of  being  genuine,  and  follow- 
ing standards  of  conduct  which  the 
world  has  tested.  If  your  life  is  not 
various  and  you  cannot  know  the 
best  people,  who  set  the  standards 
of  sincerity,  your  reading  at  least 
can  be  various,  and  you  may  look  at 
your  little  circle  through  the  best 

3  [27] 


ON   BEING  HUMAN 

books,  under  the  guidance  of  writers 
who  have  known  life  and  loved  the 
truth. 


IV 

A  ND  then  genuineness  will  bring 
ilL  serenity — which  I  take  to  be  an- 
other mark  of  the  right  development 
of  the  true  human  being,  certainly  in 
an  age  passionate  and  confused  as 
this  in  which  we  live.  Of  course  se- 
renity does  not  always  go  with  gen- 
uineness. We  must  say  of  Dr.  John- 
son that  he  was  genuine,  and  yet  we 
know  that  the  stormy  tyrant  of  the 
Turk's  Head  Tavern  was  not  serene. 
Carlyle  was  genuine  (though  that  is 
not  quite  the  first  adjective  we  should 
choose  to  describe  him),  but  of  se- 
renity he  allowed  cooks  and  cocks 

[29] 


ON   BEING  HUMAN 

and  every  modern  and  every  ancient 
sham  to  deprive  him.  Serenity  is  a 
product,  no  doubt,  of  two  very  dif- 
ferent things,  namely,  vision  and  di- 
gestion. Not  the  eye  only,  but  the 
courses  of  the  blood  must  be  clear, 
if  we  would  find  serenity.  Our  word 
"serene"  contains  a  picture.  Its  im- 
age is  of  the  calm  evening  when  the 
stars  are  out  and  the  still  night  comes 
on ;  when  the  dew  is  on  the  grass  and 
the  wind  does  not  stir;  when  the 
day's  work  is  over,  and  the  evening 
meal,  and  thought  falls  clear  in  the 
quiet  hour.  It  is  the  hour  of  reflec- 
tion— and  it  is  human  to  reflect. 
Who  shall  contrive  to  be  human 
without  this  evening  hour,  which 
drives  turmoil  out,  and  gives  the  soul 
its  seasons  of  self -recollection?  Se- 
renity is  not  a  thing  to  beget  in- 

[30] 


ON  BEING  HUMAN 

action.  It  only  checks  excitement 
and  uncalculating  haste.  It  does  not 
exclude  ardor  or  the  heat  of  battle: 
it  keeps  ardor  from  extravagance, 
prevents  the  battle  from  becoming  a 
mere  aimless  melee.  The  great  cap- 
tains of  the  world  have  been  men 
who  were  calm  in  the  moment  of 
crisis;  who  were  calm,  too,  in  the 
long  planning  which  preceded  crisis; 
who  went  into  battle  with  a  serenity 
infinitely  ominous  for  those  whom 
they  attacked.  We  instinctively  as- 
sociate serenity  with  the  highest 
types  of  power  among  men,  seeing  in 
it  the  poise  of  knowledge  and  calm 
vision,  that  supreme  heat  and  mas- 
tery which  is  without  splutter  or 
noise  of  any  kind.  The  art  of  power 
in  this  sort  is  no  doubt  learned  in 
hours  of  reflection,  by  those  who  are 

[31] 


ON  BEING  HUMAN 

not  born  with  it.  What  rebuke  of 
aimless  excitement  there  is  to  be  got 
out  of  a  little  reflection,  when  we 
have  been  inveighing  against  the 
corruption  and  decadence  of  our  own 
days,  if  only  we  have  provided  our- 
selves with  a  little  knowledge  of 
the  past  wherewith  to  balance  our 
thought!  As  bad  times  as  these,  or 
any  we  shall  see,  have  been  reformed, 
but  not  by  protests.  They  have  been 
made  glorious  instead  of  shameful  by 
the  men  who  kept  their  heads  and 
struck  with  sure  self-possession  in  the 
fight.  No  age  will  take  hysterical  re- 
form. The  world  is  very  human,  not 
a  bit  given  to  adopting  virtues  for 
the  sake  of  those  who  merely  bemoan 
its  vices,  and  we  are  most  effective 
when  we  are  most  calmly  in  posses- 
sion of  our  senses. 

[32] 


ON  BEING  HUMAN 

So  far  is  serenity  from  being  a 
thing  of  slackness  or  inaction  that  it 
seems  bred,  rather,  by  an  equable 
energy,  a  satisfying  activity.  It  may 
be  found  in  the  midst  of  that  alert 
interest  in  affairs  which  is,  it  may  be, 
the  distinguishing  trait  of  developed 
manhood.  You  distinguish  man  from 
the  brute  by  his  intelligent  curiosity, 
his  play  of  mind  beyond  the  narrow 
field  of  instinct,  his  perception  of 
cause  and  effect  in  matters  to  him 
indifferent,  his  appreciation  of  mo- 
tive and  calculation  of  results.  He 
is  interested  in  the  world  about  him, 
and  even  in  the  great  universe  of 
which  it  forms  a  part,  not  merely  as 
a  thing  he  would  use,  satisfy  his 
wants  and  grow  great  by,  but  as  a 
field  to  stretch  his  mind  in,  for  love 
of  journeyings  and  excursions  in  the 

[33] 


ON  BEING  HUMAN 

large  realm  of  thought.  Your  full- 
bred  human  being  loves  a  run  afield 
with  his  understanding.  With  what 
images  does  he  not  surround  himself 
and  store  his  mind !  With  what  fond- 
ness does  he  con  travelers'  tales  and 
credit  poets'  fancies!  WTith  what 
patience  does  he  follow  science  and 
pore  upon  old  records,  and  with  what 
eagerness  does  he  ask  the  news  of  the 
day!  No  great  part  of  what  he 
learns  immediately  touches  his  own 
life  or  the  course  of  his  own  affairs: 
he  is  not  pursuing  a  business,  but 
satisfying  as  he  can  an  insatiable 
mind.  No  doubt  the  highest  form 
of  this  noble  curiosity  is  that  which 
leads  us,  without  self-interest,  to  look 
abroad  upon  all  the  field  of  man's 
life  at  home  and  in  society,  seeking 
more  excellent  forms  of  government, 

[34] 


ON  BEING  HUMAN 

more  righteous  ways  of  labor,  more 
elevating  forms  of  art,  and  which 
makes  the  greater  among  us  states- 
men, reformers,  philanthropists,  art- 
ists, critics,  men  of  letters.  It  is 
certainly  human  to  mind  your  neigh- 
bor's business  as  well  as  your  own. 
Gossips  are  only  sociologists  upon  a 
mean  and  petty  scale.  The  art  of 
being  human  lifts  to  a  better  level 
than  that  of  gossip;  it  leaves  mere 
chatter  behind,  as  too  reminiscent  of 
a  lower  stage  of  existence,  and  is 
compassed  by  those  whose  outlook 
is  wide  enough  to  serve  for  guidance 
and  a  choosing  of  ways. 


LUCKILY  we  are  not  the  first 
_J  human  beings.  We  have  come 
into  a  great  heritage  of  interesting 
things,  collected  and  piled  all  about 
us  by  the  curiosity  of  past  genera- 
tions. And  so  our  interest  is  select- 
ive. Our  education  consists  in  learn- 
ing intelligent  choice.  Our  energies 
do  not  clash  or  compete:  each  is  free 
to  take  his  own  path  to  knowledge. 
Each  has  that  choice,  which  is  man's 
alone,  of  the  life  he  shall  live,  and 
finds  out  first  or  last  that  the  art  in 
living  is  not  only  to  be  genuine  and 
one's  own  master,  but  also  to  learn 

[36] 


ON  BEING  HUMAN 

mastery  in  perception  and  prefer- 
ence. Your  true  woodsman  needs 
not  to  follow  the  dusty  highway 
through  the  forest  nor  search  for  any 
path,  but  goes  straight  from  glade  to 
glade  as  if  upon  an  open  way,  having 
some  privy  understanding  with  the 
taller  trees,  some  compass  in  his 
senses.  So  there  is  a  subtle  craft  in 
finding  ways  for  the  mind,  too.  Keep 
but  your  eyes  alert  and  your  ears 
quick,  as  you  move  among  men  and 
among  books,  and  you  shall  find 
yourself  possessed  at  last  of  a  new 
sense,  the  sense  of  the  pathfinder. 
Have  you  never  marked  the  eyes  of 
a  man  who  has  seen  the  world  he  has 
lived  in:  the  eyes  of  the  sea-captain, 
who  has  watched  his  life  through  the 
changes  of  the  heavens;  the  eyes  of 
the  huntsman,  nature's  gossip  and 

[37] 


ON  BEING  HUMAN 

familiar;  the  eyes  of  the  man  of 
affairs,  accustomed  to  command  in 
moments  of  exigency?  You  are  at 
once  aware  that  they  are  eyes  which 
can  see.  There  is  something  in  them 
that  you  do  not  find  in  other  eyes, 
and  you  have  read  the  life  of  the 
man  when  you  have  divined  what  it 
is.  Let  the  thing  serve  as  a  figure. 
So  ought  alert  interest  in  the  world 
of  men  and  thought  to  serve  each 
one  of  us  that  we  shall  have  the 
quick  perceiving  vision,  taking  mean- 
ings at  a  glance,  reading  suggestions 
as  if  they  were  expositions.  You 
shall  not  otherwise  get  full  value  of 
your  humanity.  What  good  shall  it 
do  you  else  that  the  long  generations 
of  men  which  have  gone  before  you 
have  filled  the  world  with  great  store 
of  everything  that  may  make  you 

[38] 


ON   BEING  HUMAN 

wise  and  your  life  various?    Will  you 
not  take  usury  of  the  past,  if  it  may 
be  had  for  the  taking?    Here  is  the 
world  humanity  has  made:   will  you 
take  full  citizenship  in  it,  or  will  you 
live  in  it  as  dull,  as  slow  to  receive, 
as  unenfranchised,  as  the  idlers  for 
whom  civilization  has  no  uses,  or  the 
deadened    toilers,    men    or    beasts, 
whose  labor  shuts  the  door  on  choice? 
That  man  seems  to  me  a  little  less 
than  human  who  lives  as  if  our  life 
in  the  world  were  but  just  begun, 
thinking  only  of  the  things  of  sense, 
recking  nothing  of  the  infinite  throng- 
ing  and   assemblage   of   affairs    the 
great  stage  over,  or  of  the  old  wisdom 
that  has  ruled  the  world.    That  is,  if 
he  have  the  choice.    Great  masses  of 
our  fellow-men  are  shut   out    from 
choosing,  by  reason  of  absorbing  toil, 

[39] 


ON  BEING  HUMAN 

and  it  is  part  of  the  enlightenment  of 
our  age  that  our  understandings  are 
being  opened  to  the  workingman's 
need  of  a  little  leisure  wherein  to 
look  about  him  and  clear  his  vision 
of  the  dust  of  the  workshop.  We 
know  that  there  is  a  drudgery  which 
is  inhuman,  let  it  but  encompass  the 
whole  life,  with  only  heavy  sleep  be- 
tween task  and  task.  We  know  that 
those  who  are  so  bound  can  have  no 
freedom  to  be  men,  that  their  very 
spirits  are  in  bondage.  It  is  part  of 
our  philanthropy — it  should  be  part 
of  our  statesmanship — to  ease  the 
burden  as  we  can,  and  enfranchise 
those  who  spend  and  are  spent  for 
the  sustenance  of  the  race.  But  what 
shall  we  say  of  those  who  are  free 
and  yet  choose  littleness  and  bond- 
age, or  of  those  who,  though  they 

[40] 


ON  BEING  HUMAN 

might  see  the  whole  face  of  society, 
nevertheless  choose  to  spend  all  a 
life's  space  poring  upon  some  single 
vice  or  blemish?  I  would  not  for  the 
world  discredit  any  sort  of  philan- 
thropy except  the  small  and  churl- 
ish sort  which  seeks  to  reform  by 
nagging — the  sort  which  exaggerates 
petty  vices  into  great  ones,  and  runs 
atilt  against  windmills,  while  every- 
where colossal  shams  and  abuses  go 
unexposed,  unrebuked.  Is  it  be- 
cause we  are  better  at  being  common 
scolds  than  at  being  wise  advisers 
that  we  prefer  little  reforms  to  big 
ones?  Are  we  to  allow  the  poor  per- 
sonal habits  of  other  people  to  absorb 
and  quite  use  up  all  our  fine  indigna- 
tion? It  will  be  a  bad  day  for  society 
when  sentimentalists  are  encouraged 
to  suggest  all  the  measures  that  shall 


•ii 


ON  BEING  HUMAN 

be  taken  for  the  betterment  of  the 
race.  I,  for  one,  sometimes  sigh  for 
a  generation  of  "leading  people"  and 
of  good  people  who  shall  see  things 
steadily  and  see  them  whole;  who 
shall  show  a  handsome  justness  and 
a  large  sanity  of  view,  an  opportune 
tolerance  for  the  details,  that  happen 
to  be  awry,  in  order  that  they  may 
spend  their  energy,  not  without  self- 
possession,  in  some  generous  mission 
which  shall  make  right  principles 
shine  upon  the  people's  life.  They 
would  bring  with  them  an  age  of  large 
moralities,  a  spacious  time,  a  day  of 
vision. 

Knowledge  has  come  into  the 
world  in  vain  if  it  is  not  to  emancipate 
those  who  may  have  it  from  narrow- 
ness, censoriousness,  fussiness,  an  in- 
temperate zeal  for  petty  things.     It 

[42] 


ON  BEING  HUMAN 

would  be  a  most  pleasant,  a  truly 
humane  world,  would  we  but  open 
our  ears  with  a  more  generous  wel- 
come to  the  clear  voices  that  ring  in 
those  writings  upon  life  and  affairs 
which  mankind  has  chosen  to  keep. 
Not  many  splenetic  books,  not  many 
intemperate,  not  many  bigoted,  have 
kept  men's  confidence;  and  the  mind 
that  is  impatient,  or  intolerant,  or 
hoodwinked,  or  shut  in  to  a  petty 
view  shall  have  no  part  in  carrying 
men  forward  to  a  true  humanity, 
shall  never  stand  as  examples  of  the 
true  humankind.  What  is  truly  hu- 
man has  always  upon  it  the  broad 
light  of  what  is  genial,  fit  to  support 
life,  cordial,  and  of  a  catholic  spirit  of 
helpfulness.  Your  true  human  being 
has  eyes  and  keeps  his  balance  in  the 
world;    deems  nothing  uninteresting 

4  [43] 


ON   BEING  HUMAN 

that  comes  from  life;  clarifies  his 
vision  and  gives  health  to  his  eyes  by 
using  them  upon  things  near  and 
things  far.  The  brute  beast  has  but 
a  single  neighborhood,  a  single,  nar- 
row round  of  existence;  the  gain  of 
being  human  accrues  in  the  choice  of 
change  and  variety  and  of  experi- 
ence far  and  wide,  with  all  the  world 
for  stage — a  stage  set  and  appointed 
by  this  very  art  of  choice — all  future 
generations  for  witnesses  and  audi- 
ence. When  you  talk  with  a  man 
who  has  in  his  nature  and  acquire- 
ments that  freedom  from  constraint 
which  goes  with  the  full  franchise  of 
humanity,  he  turns  easily  from  topic 
to  topic;  does  not  fall  silent  or  dull 
when  you  leave  some  single  field  of 
thought  such  as  unwise  men  make  a 
prison  of.     The  men  who  will  not 


44 


ON  BEING  HUMAN 

be  broken  from  a  little  set  of  subjects, 
who  talk  earnestly,  hotly,  with  a 
sort  of  fierceness,  of  certain  special 
schemes  of  conduct,  and  look  coldly 
upon  everything  else,  render  you  in- 
finitely uneasy,  as  if  there  were  in 
them  a  force  abnormal  and  which 
rocked  toward  an  upset  of  the  mind; 
but  from  the  man  whose  interest 
swings  from  thought  to  thought  with 
the  zest  and  poise  and  pleasure  of 
the  old  traveler,  eager  for  what  is 
new,  glad  to  look  again  upon  what 
is  old,  you  come  away  with  faculties 
warmed  and  heartened — with  the 
feeling  of  having  been  comrade  for 
a  little  with  a  genuine  human  being. 
It  is  a  large  world  and  a  round 
world,  and  men  grow  human  by  see- 
ing all  its  play  of  force  and  folly. 


VI 

LET  no  one  suppose  that  effi- 
.J  ciency  is  lost  by  such  breadth 
and  catholicity  of  view.  We  deceive 
ourselves  with  instances,  look  at 
sharp  crises  in  the  world's  affairs, 
and  imagine  that  intense  and  narrow 
men  have  made  history  for  us.  Poise, 
balance,  a  nice  and  equable  exercise 
of  force,  are  not,  it  is  true,  the  things 
the  world  ordinarily  seeks  for  or  most 
applauds  in  its  heroes.  It  is  apt  to 
esteem  that  man  most  human  who 
has  his  qualities  in  a  certain  exagger- 
ation, whose  courage  is  passionate, 
whose  generosity  is  without  deliber- 
ation,  whose   just    action    is    with- 

[46] 


ON  BEING  HUMAN 

out  premeditation,  whose  spirit  runs 
toward  its  favorite  objects  with  an 
infectious  and  reckless  ardor,  whose 
wisdom  is  no  child  of  slow  prudence. 
We  love  Achilles  more  than  Diome- 
des,  and  Ulysses  not  at  all.  But 
these  are  standards  left  over  from  a 
ruder  state  of  society:  we  should 
have  passed  by  this  time  the  Ho- 
meric stage  of  mind — should  have 
heroes  suited  to  our  age.  Nay,  we 
have  erected  different  standards,  and 
do  make  a  different  choice,  when  we 
see  in  any  man  fulfilment  of  our 
real  ideals.  Let  a  modern  instance 
serve  as  test.  Could  any  man  hesi- 
tate to  say  that  Abraham  Lincoln 
was  more  human  than  William  Lloyd 
Garrison?  Does  not  every  one  know 
that  it  was  the  practical  Free-Soilers 
who    made    emancipation    possible, 

[47] 


ON   BEING  HUMAN 

and  not  the  hot,  impracticable  Aboli- 
tionists; that  the  country  was  infi- 
nitely more  moved  by  Lincoln's  tem- 
perate sagacity  than  by  any  man's 
enthusiasm,  instinctively  trusted  the 
man  who  saw  the  whole  situation  and 
kept  his  balance,  instinctively  held 
off  from  those  who  refused  to  see 
more  than  one  thing?  We  know  how 
serviceable  the  intense  and  headlong 
agitator  was  in  bringing  to  their  feet 
men  fit  for  action;  but  we  feel  un- 
easy while  he  lives,  and  vouchsafe 
him  our  full  sympathy  only  when  he 
is  dead.  We  know  that  the  genial 
forces  of  nature  which  work  daily, 
equably,  and  without  violence  are  in- 
finitely more  serviceable,  infinitely 
more  admirable,  than  the  rude  vio- 
lence of  the  storm,  however  necessary 
or  excellent  the  purification  it  may 

[48] 


ON  BEING  HUMAN 

have  wrought.  Should  we  seek  to 
name  the  most  human  man  among 
those  who  led  the  nation  to  its  strug- 
gle with  slavery,  and  yet  was  no 
statesman,  we  should,  of  course, 
name  Lowell.  We  know  that  his 
humor  went  further  than  any  man's 
passion  toward  setting  tolerant  men 
atingle  with  the  new  impulses  of  the 
day.  We  naturally  hold  back  from 
those  who  are  intemperate  and  can 
never  stop  to  smile,  and  are  deeply 
reassured  to  see  a  twinkle  in  a  re- 
former's eye.  We  are  glad  to  see 
earnest  men  laugh.  It  breaks  the 
strain.  If  it  be  wholesome  laughter, 
it  dispels  all  suspicion  of  spite,  and  is 
like  the  gleam  of  light  upon  running 
water,  lifting  sullen  shadows,  sug- 
gesting clear  depths. 

Surely  it  is  this  soundness  of  na- 

[49] 


ON  BEING  HUMAN 

ture,  this  broad  and  genial  quality, 
this  full-blooded,  full-orbed  sanity  of 
spirit,  which  gives  the  men  we  love 
that  wide-eyed  sympathy  which  gives 
hope  and  power  to  humanity,  which 
gives  range  to  every  good  quality 
and  is  so  excellent  a  credential  of 
genuine  manhood.  Let  your  life  and 
your  thought  be  narrow,  and  your 
sympathy  will  shrink  to  a  like  scale. 
It  is  a  quality  which  follows  the  see- 
ing mind  afield,  which  waits  on  ex- 
perience. It  is  not  a  mere  sentiment. 
It  goes  not  with  pity  so  much  as  with 
a  penetrative  understanding  of  other 
men's  lives  and  hopes  and  tempta- 
tions. Ignorance  of  these  things 
makes  it  worthless.  Its  best  tutors 
are  observation  and  experience,  and 
these  serve  only  those  who  keep  clear 
eyes  and  a  wide  field  of  vision. 

[50] 


ON  BEING  HUMAN 

It  is  exercise  and  discipline  upon 
such  a  scale,  too,  which  strengthen, 
which  for  ordinary  men  come  near 
to  creating,  that  capacity  to  reason 
upon  affairs  and  to  plan  for  action 
which  we  always  reckon  upon  finding 
in  every  man  who  has  studied  to 
perfect  his  native  force.  This  new 
day  in  which  we  live  cries  a  challenge 
to  us.  Steam  and  electricity  have 
reduced  nations  to  neighborhoods; 
have  made  travel  pastime,  and  news 
a  thing  for  everybody.  Cheap  print- 
ing has  made  knowledge  a  vulgar 
commodity.  Our  eyes  look,  almost 
without  choice,  upon  the  very  world 
itself,  and  the  word  "human"  is 
filled  with  a  new  meaning.  Our 
ideals  broaden  to  suit  the  wide  day 
in  which  we  live.  We  crave,  not 
cloistered  virtue — it  is  impossible  any 

[51] 


ON   BEING   HUMAN 

longer  to  keep  to  the  cloister — but  a 
robust  spirit  that  shall  take  the  air 
in  the  great  world,  know  men  in  all 
their  kinds,  choose  its  way  amid 
the  bustle  with  all  self-possession, 
with  wise  genuineness,  in  calmness, 
and  yet  with  the  quick  eye  of  inter- 
est and  the  quick  pulse  of  power.  It 
is  again  a  day  for  Shakespeare's 
spirit — a  day  more  various,  more  ar- 
dent, more  provoking  to  valor  and 
every  large  design,  even  than  "the 
spacious  times  of  great  Elizabeth," 
when  all  the  world  seemed  new;  and 
if  we  cannot  find  another  bard,  come 
out  of  a  new  Warwickshire,  to  hold 
once  more  the  mirror  up  to  nature, 
it  will  not  be  because  the  stage  is  not 
set  for  him.  The  time  is  such  an  one 
as  he  might  rejoice  to  look  upon ;  and 
if  we  would  serve  it  as  it  should  be 

[52] 


ON  BEING  HUMAN 

served,  we  should  seek  to  be  human 
after  his  wide-eyed  sort.  The  seren- 
ity of  power;  the  naturalness  that  is 
nature's  poise  and  mark  of  genuine- 
ness; the  unsleeping  interest  in  all 
affairs,  all  fancies,  all  things  believed 
or  done;  the  catholic  understanding, 
tolerance,  enjoyment,  of  all  classes 
and  conditions  of  men;  the  conceiv- 
ing imagination,  the  planning  pur- 
pose, the  creating  thought,  the  whole- 
some, laughing  humor,  the  quiet 
insight,  the  universal  coinage  of  the 
brain — are  not  these  the  marvelous 
gifts  and  qualities  we  mark  in  Shake- 
speare when  we  call  him  the  greatest 
among  men?  And  shall  not  these 
rounded  and  perfect  powers  serve  us 
as  our  ideal  of  what  it  is  to  be  a  fin- 
ished human  being? 

We  live  for  our  own  age — an  age 

[53] 


ON  BEING  HUMAN 

like  Shakespeare's,  when  an  old 
world  is  passing  away,  a  new  world 
coming  in — an  age  of  new  specula- 
tion and  every  new  adventure  of  the 
mind ;  a  full  stage,  an  intricate  plot, 
a  universal  play  of  passion,  an  out- 
come no  man  can  foresee.  It  is  to 
this  world,  this  sweep  of  action,  that 
our  understandings  must  be  stretched 
and  fitted;  it  is  in  this  age  we 
must  show  our  human  quality.  We 
must  measure  ourselves  by  the  task, 
accept  the  pace  set  for  us,  make  shift 
to  know  what  we  are  about.  How 
free  and  liberal  should  be  the  scale 
of  our  sympathy,  how  catholic  our 
understanding  of  the  world  in  which 
we  live,  how  poised  and  masterful 
our  action  in  the  midst  of  so  great 
affairs !  We  should  school  our  ears  to 
know  the  voices  that  are  genuine, 

[54] 


ON  BEING  HUMAN 

our  thought  to  take  the  truth  when 
it  is  spoken,  our  spirits  to  feel  the 
zest  of  the  day.  It  is  within  our 
choice  to  be  with  mean  company  or 
with  great,  to  consort  with  the  wise 
or  with  the  foolish,  now  that  the 
great  world  has  spoken  to  us  in  the 
literature  of  all  tongues  and  voices. 
The  best  selected  human  nature  will 
tell  in  the  making  of  the  future,  and 
the  art  of  being  human  is  the  art  of 
freedom  and  of  force. 


THE    END 


UC  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 


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